SWVA Thinker

President Obama recently appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.   By making this a recess appointment, Obama prevents the Senate from holding hearings that would require Berwick to testify about controversial things he has said.

U.S. Senator John Barrasso is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon.  Newsmax reports that, based on controversial statements made by Dr. Berwick, Barrasso warns us that the U. S. appears to be moving to healthcare rationing.

Berwick has said, “I’m a romantic about the National Health Service [in Britain]. I love it.”  In England, N.I.C.E., the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, is "an independent organization responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health."  The N.I.C.E. has the power to choose who gets treatment and who doesn't, in essence, who lives and who dies.

Berwick has also said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”

“The president should have made an appointment to be the head of Medicare and Medicaid over a year ago, Barrasso says.  “It should have been one of his first appointments, because we have spent a year discussing healthcare legislation,”  Barrasso is convinced Obama held off the appointment of Berwick until after Obamacare became law, because Berwick’s appointment would have tipped Americans off that health care rationing was part of the legislation.

Barrasso believes Obama made Berwick’s a recess appointment, bypassing hearings in the Senate, to minimize public scrutiny of Berwick’s extreme positions before the 2010 elections.  It is just more Obama deception.

If you are disabled or old, watch out!  “Death panels” will paint a target on you.  Once again, “stupid,” “ignorant” Governor Sarah Palin is right and her “smart,” venomous enemies are wrong.